Stocks, Canadian dollar up on NAFTA deal, safe-haven assets hit

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A pact between the United States and Canada to rescue the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico drove up global stock markets and the Canadian dollar on Monday, while weighing on safe-haven assets.

FILE PHOTO: A Canadian dollar coin, commonly known as the "Loonie", is pictured in this illustration picture taken in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, January 23, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Blinch/File Photo

The newly named United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) announced on Sunday preserves a $1.2 trillion open-trade zone that was on the brink of collapse after nearly a quarter century.

“It is good news not only for NAFTA and North America in general, but a lot of market participants are really viewing this as a positive for future negotiations, especially with China,” said Lindsey Bell, investment strategist at CFRA Research in New York.

In currencies, the British pound rose against the U.S. dollar after Bloomberg reported that the British government was proposing a compromise on the Irish border issue in Brexit talks.

The Canadian dollar CAD= strengthened to a four-month high against the U.S. dollar and the Mexican peso MXN= hit its highest level in more than seven weeks after the new trade agreement.

USMCA is aimed at bringing more jobs into the United States, with Canada and Mexico accepting more restrictive commerce with the United States, their main export partner.

It also effectively maintains the current auto sector and largely spares Canada and Mexico from the prospect of U.S. tariffs on their vehicles, although it will make it harder for global auto makers to build cars cheaply in Mexico.

FILE PHOTO: Canadian Loonies, otherwise known as a one dollar coin, are displayed on top of an American currency in this posed photograph in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 10, 2008. REUTERS/Mark Blinch/File Photo

The industrial sector .SPLRCI, sensitive to trade developments in recent months, was up 0.9 percent, its sharpest gain in five weeks.

Trading volume of Italian government bonds on Friday had reached its highest level for a single day since 2011 on Tradeweb’s European Government Bonds platform, the company said. Some 5.5 billion euros ($6.4 billion) were traded on the day, it said.

The euro on Monday was hit by worries about a rise in Italy's fiscal deficit, dropping below $1.16 EUR=.

Also casting a shadow on markets were two surveys on Sunday that showed growth in Chinese manufacturing sputtered in September as domestic and export demand softened.

Oil futures jumped more than $2 a barrel, rising to levels not seen since November 2014, as U.S. sanctions on Iran loomed and the North American trade deal was seen as fostering growth.

Brent futures LCOc1 settled at $84.98 a barrel, up $2.25, or 2.7 percent. In post-settlement trade, the contract continued to strengthen, rising to $85.45 a barrel, the first trade above $85 since November 2014. U.S. light crude futures CLc1 settled up $2.05 a barrel at $75.30, the highest level since November 2014.

Reporting by Laila Kearney; Additional reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan and Medha Singh, Kate Duguid, Jessica Resnick-Ault, Chuck Mikolajczak and Karen Brettell in New York and Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; editing by Rosalba O'Brien and Leslie Adler